kirstencan

Awesome, these cookies are.

My parents gave me awesome cookie cutters for Christmas!

I had wanted the Message-in-a-cookie set and the Star Wars set for a while, but they surprised me with a second Star Wars set! I didn't even know they had one with ships!

All excited, I made a double-batch of sugar cookie dough yesterday, colored some of it, and went to town.

Here's my first batch, ready to go in the oven:

One of the things I liked about these cutters is that the details show up so nicely, that you can leave them plain or just with sprinkles and they look nice without the crazy royal icing (which, let's face it, I'm NEVER going to do).

Soon, I had stacks cooling.

Here's the 'Heroes and Villains' set.  (Heroes?  I see one hero).

And the 'Vehicles' set:

And I thought I might as well use the message ones appropriately...

A couple other phrases I wanted to use:  I'd rather kiss a wookie, and Size matters not.  But they were just slightly too long.

Now we have a lot of cool cookies - I think a bunch of them will hit the freezer for when we are in need of an awesome treat.

Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Gifted Books

Hi!  We are still in a video game and cookie-induced stupor. Throw about a trillion hours (estimated, but probably accurate) of Lego building in there and you've got our weekend.  The neighborhood kids are starting to venture out from under the Christmas tree, but when they knocked on our door today, we said we weren't ready to play yet.  A family day.  For the record, the kids were ready, the parents weren't.  Also, we were still hanging out in our pj's at 2:00 in the afternoon, and our house still very much looks like we just opened our presents.  So while I find places for our new 'stuff' (and good stuff it is), let me share with you a little bit.

Here's our new book stack!

We try and get the kids a new book each Christmas.  This year they ended up with two each (the handmade thing did NOT happen for me and I had to be okay with that).

For some reason, it was hard to find cool books for them this year.  And then we had family asking for book recommendations and we didn't know what to tell them. 

This is most explainable for the girl.  She has two large bookcases crammed full of books, most of which she's read multiple times.  She checks out 15-20-ish books every week from the library and has them read in just a couple of days.  No lie.  It's HARD to find things she hasn't read.

So, after a lot of amazon searching (by me, Aaron, and my mom), we came up with these (click on the book cover to see the book on amazon):

For the girl (10):

I knew she'd been waiting to read the new Rick Riordan book, but the library never had it.  Sadly, she finished it Christmas day.  Book of a Thousand days she's read more than once, but she had just re-read it from the library and was saying how she needed her own copy (and it was cheap on amazon).

And from Grandma (Grandpa is implied):

Also from Grandma:  the gift tag said it was for our family, but I suspect it's really aimed at the girl, without looking like they gave her an extra gift:

For Thomas (8):

Ugh.  The Pokemon is a bit embarassing, but it's a pretty cool, big hardcover look-and-find book that all the kids loved when they checked it out from the library.  He is such a reader now, but he has like 30 Magic Tree House books already.  And he DEVOURS Calvin & Hobbes.  I often find him curled up with my COMPLETE set on my bed and don't have the heart to take it away (but they're my nice books!)  We have lots of paperback Calvins, though, and he loves all of them.  And many are in various stages of decay after so much reading.

Grandma was smarter, though, and I think she found just the right thing:

For the Monkey (5):

The kid LOVES Mouseguard and already has the first two books (and a plush Lieam toy).  Owly is a new-to-us series.  Owly is a graphic novel as well (all my kids love graphic novels) with virtually no words.  Monkey is a reader now, but we thought he'd get a kick out of the cute owl.  He LOVES anything cute.

From Grandma:

She is the one who made him his sock monkey a few years ago.  Appropriate!

My little brother gave us this adorable book.  I hadn't heard of it but am excited to read it.  And I think EVERYONE will love it.

He also recommended this book to my mom, who got it for us (and the movie).  It's our new bedtime chapter book read-aloud.

 

As for me, I got a couple of new Penguin Classics hardcovers.  SO PRETTY!  I got these for my mom as well.  That might be how Aaron knew to get me some.  I may have hinted/drooled.

(Click to look at all of them - they're GORGEOUS)

And a gift from Aaron and I to our whole family:

We're hoping to raise the bar on our family scripture study (also by using this program).

On Christmas Eve afternoon, Aaron spend another hour or two on amazon searching for books for the girl.  He'd call out titles and she'd yell back 'Read it!' or 'Nope!'.  He ended up with... 63? titles for her to check out.

So that's good... for this month.  ;)

What about you?  Did you get any awesome books this Christmas?

Christmas Eve Eve

Or, as my daughter likes to call this day, Christmas Adam.

For your reading pleasure, here's a recent page from Monkey's (5yo) journal.  I LOVE his drawing of Mary, Jesus, and a cow.  Click to see it larger if you need to.

Thomas's (8yo) starts with 'Christmas is a special birth' and ends with soldiers and King Herod.  He is all about the action parts.

(I love 'One guy with a stick came to visit' -ha!)

More about their journals later (they're awesome!) but I have them write the first sentence or title by themselves, then I write the rest as they tell me (I'm sure you could tell, though).

And here's an offering from the girl (10yo).  A nativity scene in lego bricks:

Pip the elf gave the kids this challenge, but only the girl really wanted to (!?).  But I think she did a fabulous job - the angel's stormtrooper shirt is awesome.  (The idea was inspired by Planet Nomad).

I hope you all have an amazing holiday weekend!  The excitement is mounting here - holy cow is it!

Merry Christmas!

Lucia

We had a wonderful St. Lucia's celebration.  We've participated in our local Swedish heritage society's performance for the past few years and it's been such a neat experience.  Last year we couldn't due to scheduling conflicts and we all missed it.  A friend has put together a photo essay about our group and she did a great job.  Check it out here.

This year... the girl was old enough to be in the actual procession!  Can you imagine how thrilled she was?

The smaller children get to be tomten (gnomes) and sing some fun songs and dance around the tree.  They wear red, grey and black (and cute little hats).

The boys (and I) were still in that part.  Oh, I can't wait until the boys are older and I don't feel obligated to volunteer to go on stage with them (and supervise the backstage chaos!).

But since the girl turned 10, she's old enough for the more serious procession and choir.  She LOVED it.  No surprise.  It's totally up her alley.  And she practiced all. the. time. 

I don't usually post videos here, but I filmed (short!) clips so you can get a taste of what Lucia is like.

First they turn out all the lights, and the Lucias are the first to enter.  There were two this year.  All you can see is the candles in their crowns (and occasional camera flashes, but I abstained).  Then the girls walk in, one pace at a time, oldest to youngest, down both aisles with their candles.  They are followed by the Star Boys with their pointy hats and stars.  They all sing Sankta Lucia while they're coming in.

Then they sing a few songs in Swedish. 

 

Stille Natt was the girl's favorite.

 

They exit the way they came in, with the lights off, singing Sankta Lucia(repeatedly, until everyone is out).  It's absolutely beautiful.

 

(You can see all my little videos here).

After the program... we feast!  They had a lovely spread and we enjoyed staying for it this year (now that the boys are older and Thomas has less dietary restrictions).  It was such a fun night! As Aaron says, this is the coolest thing our children do.  Such beautiful traditions!  And I'm always proud that my kids all learn 6 or 7 songs all in Swedish!  And Thomas sang EVERY word!  They were all pretty awesome.

Another nice part of the evening is hearing an adult choir sing "Jul, Jul, Stralande Jul" which is fast becoming my favorite Christmas song.

God Jul!

 

Advent

(Computer = fixed!  (It was the power supply.))

Six more days??!  We are definitely keeping track around here.  The girl keeps up the white board countdown, and the kids got chocolate advent calendars from Lucia practice (a peek on the left below).

The last two years we've done Playmobil advent calendars, but after doing both Christmas themed ones, and not wanting to do a pirate, fairy, etc. one (not Christmas-y!) we switched to Lego.

It's a hit.  Naked Santa and all.

The girl made paper chains.  For her AND her dolls.

My mother-in-law (quilter extraordinaire) gifted us with this quilted advent calendar.  I love how everything hangs on buttons.

Don't think we've forgotten about Pip!  Definitely not.  The kids welcomed him back with big hugs and look forward to a game of hide-and-seek with him every day. Amy and I decided to not post all our advent goings-on this year - we're both just too busy this year.  Speaking of which, I'll be back soon to post about our Lucia celebration!  It was awesome.

So, yeah.  We KNOW how many days are left. ;)

Our star is too heavy for our tree this year.  I'll have to have the kiddos make one.  Monkey is very upset that we don't have a star up there.

It doesn't stop anyone from hanging out at the bottom of the tree, though!  We've had some good Christmas story-times down there.

And puzzle-time, too.

What is your family's favorite way to count down the days?

I'm taking it as a sign...

I prayed for help to use my time more wisely.

The next morning the computer smelled like it was on fire.

Then it died (power supply?).

But hey, my counters have never been cleaner and my laundry is all done. And it's hard to type on our mini laptop.

Hmm... Back soon... probably.

Busy busy weekend.

Wow, we had a whirlwind weekend around here. Especially Saturday.

First, and most importantly, our newly 8yo got baptized and confirmed on Saturday.  It was a very special day, and all of my teeny worries (like 'He'll splash in the font or giggle during the confirmation blessing') were completely unnecessary.  The kid was AMAZING on his special day, and we all were so happy to be there.

For that we had family in town and we got to meet Ingrid for the first time!  We love her already.

Then the last practice for the Lucia pageant (next weekend) and a quick dinner before the girl's dance recital.

Busy, busy, busy. 

Now I need to take a few deep breaths and get us back to our routine.  Back soon!

Little Etsy Finds + Santa

A couple of fun things I've picked up on etsy lately:

Before the Lego party, I bought the girl and I some Lego jewelry from The Fingerpost Shop.

The pink earrings and the pendant are the girl's, the clear studs are mine.

Did the boys notice that our jewelry matched the theme? No, of course not!  I wasn't expecting them too.  But I sure got a kick out of it, and those clear earrings are now my go-to everyday pair.  I think I need these and these.

(Lego should have thought of this!  They sure don't cater to their female fans at. all.)

We get the kids a new ornament every year.  This year I found a Star Trek Borg cube ornament at a yard sale in the Spring, a brunette ballerina ornament for just a couple bucks at Hobby Lobby, but I had a harder time finding a monkey one I liked.

When I searched etsy, I found this cute shop in Puerto Rico that makes ornaments out of cans!

I thought the monkey was cute (the puppy is a freebie), and it was very inexpensive, so I went ahead and bought. 

The ornaments are really cool and not what I was expecting.  There are no sharp edges, and they're kind of soft, like there's a layer of thin foam in between the can and the backing fabric.  Anyway, cute stuff.

And see, that puppy is one of the reasons why etsy is cool.  Sometimes ittle freebies and cute packaging (I've bought from braebrae twice now (lost one of those teeny clear earrings, so I bought a second pair!) and their packaging is super cute).

I also picked up this pair of doll tights*.  It was wrapped up all cute, so I didn't bother to unwrap them.  They'll get put in the girl's stocking still wrapped. 

And I just bought this doll kit, but I think I'm putting it away till her birthday - I just couldn't pass it up!

*Oh my goodness, the doll tights turned into a thing.  See, I was just shopping around when the girl came to see what I was up to and looked at some things with me.  I already loved the tights, but she LOVED the tights.  And they were cheap!  So I bought them, but then wasn't sure what to do with them.  See, if I put them in her stocking, she'd know that I'd bought them. She swears she still believes in Santa.  I think she kinda knows, but doesn't want to (which is a great place to be, really) except she SWEARS she saw him one year putting out the presents.  It must have been a dream.

Anyway, I called my neighbor and asked her to get her daughter to find out what my girl's believing status was.  Which she emailed to me, and then I didn't delete that email as promptly as I should have, and the girl saw it. 

So that was... awkward.  And didn't change my opinion - I think she knows, but doesn't want to, and that dream(?) has part of her convinced.  It seemingly didn't change her opinion either.

I'm still sticking the tights in her stocking.  Maybe it'll straighten her out?

Goodness.

How do you guys deal with the Santa thing?  It gets a little tricky, doesn't it?

New moleskine print

This summer I silkscreened (with my gocco) a new moleskine design.  Because I'm truly sold on making my lists/sketches all in one place.   I had just finished my last notebook, and it's more fun to switch to a fresh, new notebook when it has a fun, new cover, too.

(Did I just use too many commas?)

I really love printing on these little notebooks.  That's why I stock up on them when Chronicle books has their big sale (a boxful just arrived yesterday -whee!).  They're handy to have around for little gifts, too.

I think it's a fun design.

Here are the notebooks I regularly carry around with me:

Three pocket size plain moleskines (my fave).  One is current, the Ok Ikumi one is the one I just finished (and finished so fast when I was sick(est) that I needed some of the lists in it still (birthday planning)).  The pink flower one is older... I don't know how it got in there, but I don't want to lose it.  It's along for the ride?  I'll file it soon. The larger size moleskine is my school planning notebook (the cover is stamped) where I keep lists and ideas for their current subjects, and the cheapo black planner is where I try and keep track of what we've actually done each day.  I carry the school ones with me and work on them while I'm waiting for the boys at taekwondo.

Um, yeah, I like me some lists... you?

And I'm nearly finished with this one... time to come up with a new design!